Some people will always mock you for trying. They'll say, "You shouldn't have done that," and, "I told you so." And they will sit in their house of nothing, and they will laugh as you stumble and fall. But as philosophy has long argued, these spiteful critics are the truly sad ones. They can never truly know what it is like to live, and they will never know the joy of love, and of trying.
Nietzsche once argued that to be truly strong is to not destroy somebody. It's not to mock, or demean, or put somebody down. True strength is when you laugh at the critic, or the cynic, who seems to love mocking you for trying. You laugh, and you go back to living your life anyway.
As far back as the Epic of Gilgamesh, it's been said that it is easier to destroy than to create. It takes only a moment of easy thoughtlessness to pull down a wall, but it takes weeks, months, or even years to build one up. It takes effort, and courage, and strength. And the same is true for life.
Yes, we might choose the wrong partners. Yes, we might choose the wrong job. Yes, we might take the wrong path now and again. But to live is to do. To be great is to try. It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. And it is better to have lived and failed than never to have lived at all.